German actor Matthias Fuchs (1939-2001) was well known as the young Ethelbert in the popular Immenhof film series in the 1950s. Later he evolved into one of the most respected character actors of the German theatre, and worked on film and TV with director Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 1159. Photo: Ultra Film / Lilo. Publicity still for Mit 17 weint man nicht/17 Year Olds Don't Cry (Alfred Vohrer, 1960).
Matthias Fuchs was born in Hannover, Germany, in 1939.
He became known in the role of Ethelbert in the Heimat comedies about the Immenhof farm, at the side of Angelika Meissner and Heidi Brühl.
He made his film debut in the first part of the series, Die Mädels vom Immenhof/The Girls from Immenhof (Wolfgang Schleif, 1955) and also appeared in the sequels Hochzeit auf Immenhof/Wedding at Immenhof (Volker von Collande, 1956) and Ferien auf Immenhof/Holiday at Immenhof (Hermann Leitner, 1957).
He next acted in Der erste Frühlingstag/The First Day of Spring (Helmut Weiss, 1956) with Luise Ullrich and the historically inaccurate war film U47 - Kapitänleutnant Prien/U-47 Lt. Commander Prien (Harald Reinl, 1958).
Other films in which he appeared during the 1950s were the comedy-fantasy Der Engel, der seine Harfe versetzte/The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp (Kurt Hoffmann, 1959) and the Thomas Mann adaptation Buddenbrooks - 2. Teil/Buddenbrooks, part 2 (Alfred Weidenmann, 1959) starring Liselotte Pulver.
German postcard by Rüdel Verlag (Franz Josef Rüdel Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf), no. 3213. Photo: Erwin Schneider.
German postcard by Ufa, Berlin, no. FK 1750. Photo: Spörr / Arca-Film / NF.
After attending drama school Matthias Fuchs evolved into one of the most respected character actors of the German theatre.
Throughout his life, he was closely associated with the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. Famous became his work with director Peter Zadek.
During the 1960s and 1970s, he also appeared in TV films and he played supporting parts in films like Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt/The Girl and the District Attorney (Jürgen Goslar, 1962) with Elke Sommer, and the international production Cardinal (Otto Preminger, 1963).
Fuchs also appeared in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Mutter Küsters' Fahrt zum Himmel/Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1975) starring Brigitte Mira. He worked several times with Fassbinder, including the TV mini-series Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) and the second chapter of Fassbinder's BRD Trilogy, Lola (1981) starring Barbara Sukowa.
He also appeared in Aus einem deutschen Leben/Death Is My Trade (Theodor Kotulla, 1977), a disturbing biography of Rudolph Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz II-Birkenau, played by Götz George.
German postcard by Rüdel Verlag (Franz Josef Rüdel Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf), no. 1723. Photo: A. Grimm / CCC / Deutsche London. Publicity still for Der erste Frühlingstag/The First Spring Day (Helmut Weiss, 1956).
German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 4810. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: Lilo-Publicity / Ultra-Europa. Publicity still for Mit 17 weint Mann nicht/17-Year-Olds Don't Cry (Alfred Vohrer, 1960).
Matthias Fuchs acted in interesting films like Die flambierte Frau/A Woman in Flames (Robert van Ackeren, 1983) starring Gudrun Landgrebe and Decoder (Muscha, 1983). The Sci-Fi film Das Arche Noah Prinzip/The Noah’s Ark Principle (Roland Emmerich, 1984) was the most expensive (about 1.2 million DM) student film ever made in Germany. On TV, he guest-starred in popular Krimi series like Der Fahnder/The Investigator (1988), Der Alte/The Old Fox (1989) and Derrick (1990).
During the 1990s, he regularly appeared in films such as the comedy Rotwang muß weg!/Rotwang Must Go (Hans-Christoph Blumenberg, 1994), a spoof of Jurassic Park with Udo Kier, and the creepy thriller Der Totmacher/Deathmaker (Romuald Karmakar, 1995), starring Götz George.
Also interesting is Beim nächsten Kuß knall ich ihn nieder/At the Next Kiss I'll Shoot Him (1996), a biography of German film director Reinhold Schünzel, who had to emigrate from Germany in the 1930s, and went to Hollywood.
After the death of Peter Pasetti, from 1995 until he died in 2001, Fuchs narrated 39 episodes of the radio drama series, Die drei????/The Three???? (Episode 65 to 103). He was also a narrator of television documentaries and the animation series Max und Moritz/Max and Moritz (Veit Vollmer, 1999).
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 1159. Photo: Ultra Film / Lilo. Publicity still for Mit 17 weint man nicht/17 Year Olds Don't Cry (Alfred Vohrer, 1960).
Heimat comedies
Matthias Fuchs was born in Hannover, Germany, in 1939.
He became known in the role of Ethelbert in the Heimat comedies about the Immenhof farm, at the side of Angelika Meissner and Heidi Brühl.
He made his film debut in the first part of the series, Die Mädels vom Immenhof/The Girls from Immenhof (Wolfgang Schleif, 1955) and also appeared in the sequels Hochzeit auf Immenhof/Wedding at Immenhof (Volker von Collande, 1956) and Ferien auf Immenhof/Holiday at Immenhof (Hermann Leitner, 1957).
He next acted in Der erste Frühlingstag/The First Day of Spring (Helmut Weiss, 1956) with Luise Ullrich and the historically inaccurate war film U47 - Kapitänleutnant Prien/U-47 Lt. Commander Prien (Harald Reinl, 1958).
Other films in which he appeared during the 1950s were the comedy-fantasy Der Engel, der seine Harfe versetzte/The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp (Kurt Hoffmann, 1959) and the Thomas Mann adaptation Buddenbrooks - 2. Teil/Buddenbrooks, part 2 (Alfred Weidenmann, 1959) starring Liselotte Pulver.
German postcard by Rüdel Verlag (Franz Josef Rüdel Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf), no. 3213. Photo: Erwin Schneider.
German postcard by Ufa, Berlin, no. FK 1750. Photo: Spörr / Arca-Film / NF.
Death Is My Trade
After attending drama school Matthias Fuchs evolved into one of the most respected character actors of the German theatre.
Throughout his life, he was closely associated with the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. Famous became his work with director Peter Zadek.
During the 1960s and 1970s, he also appeared in TV films and he played supporting parts in films like Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt/The Girl and the District Attorney (Jürgen Goslar, 1962) with Elke Sommer, and the international production Cardinal (Otto Preminger, 1963).
Fuchs also appeared in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Mutter Küsters' Fahrt zum Himmel/Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1975) starring Brigitte Mira. He worked several times with Fassbinder, including the TV mini-series Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) and the second chapter of Fassbinder's BRD Trilogy, Lola (1981) starring Barbara Sukowa.
He also appeared in Aus einem deutschen Leben/Death Is My Trade (Theodor Kotulla, 1977), a disturbing biography of Rudolph Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz II-Birkenau, played by Götz George.
German postcard by Rüdel Verlag (Franz Josef Rüdel Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf), no. 1723. Photo: A. Grimm / CCC / Deutsche London. Publicity still for Der erste Frühlingstag/The First Spring Day (Helmut Weiss, 1956).
German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 4810. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: Lilo-Publicity / Ultra-Europa. Publicity still for Mit 17 weint Mann nicht/17-Year-Olds Don't Cry (Alfred Vohrer, 1960).
Jurassic Park Spoof
Matthias Fuchs acted in interesting films like Die flambierte Frau/A Woman in Flames (Robert van Ackeren, 1983) starring Gudrun Landgrebe and Decoder (Muscha, 1983). The Sci-Fi film Das Arche Noah Prinzip/The Noah’s Ark Principle (Roland Emmerich, 1984) was the most expensive (about 1.2 million DM) student film ever made in Germany. On TV, he guest-starred in popular Krimi series like Der Fahnder/The Investigator (1988), Der Alte/The Old Fox (1989) and Derrick (1990).
During the 1990s, he regularly appeared in films such as the comedy Rotwang muß weg!/Rotwang Must Go (Hans-Christoph Blumenberg, 1994), a spoof of Jurassic Park with Udo Kier, and the creepy thriller Der Totmacher/Deathmaker (Romuald Karmakar, 1995), starring Götz George.
Also interesting is Beim nächsten Kuß knall ich ihn nieder/At the Next Kiss I'll Shoot Him (1996), a biography of German film director Reinhold Schünzel, who had to emigrate from Germany in the 1930s, and went to Hollywood.
After the death of Peter Pasetti, from 1995 until he died in 2001, Fuchs narrated 39 episodes of the radio drama series, Die drei????/The Three???? (Episode 65 to 103). He was also a narrator of television documentaries and the animation series Max und Moritz/Max and Moritz (Veit Vollmer, 1999).
Matthias Fuchs died of lung cancer in 2001 in Hamburg, Germany. His final film was Prüfstand VII/Test Stand VII (Robert Bramkamp, 2002) with Robert Forster.
Trailer of Lola (1981) with Fuchs as the drummer in the first scene. Source: Rialto Film (YouTube).
Sources: Wikipedia, and IMDb.
This post was last updated on 21 April 2024.
1 comment:
I've become fascinated by him after watching Fassbinders Lola.
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